Sox, Farrell say it’s a good fit

Tuesday

Oct 23, 2012 at 5:07 PM

On Tuesday the Red Sox introduced John Farrell as the 46th manager in franchise history.

TIM BRITTON

BOSTON — This is all about familiarity and fit.

On Tuesday the Red Sox introduced John Farrell as the 46th manager in franchise history. It comes at a particularly tumultuous time for Boston, which is coming off its worst season in 47 years and with a roster punctured with holes.

Farrell, fresh off a two-year tenure in Toronto that left many north of the border unfulfilled and angry, says that he understands and embraces the challenge in returning to Boston, where he served as the pitching coach from 2007 to 2010.

“This is an incredible privilege to be standing here today,” he said, shortly after donning a Sox cap and holding up his new (but also old) No. 52 jersey. “This is the epicenter of the game.”

Farrell added that in his Saturday meeting with Boston’s ownership group, principal owner John Henry asked him, point blank, why he would want to manage the Red Sox given the team’s current issues.

“This is a place I would love to take on the challenge. It’s an incredible city. It’s an incredible baseball environment,” Farrell said Tuesday. “There are a lot of things here that make a natural fit.”

That last word loomed large on Tuesday. By no means is Farrell the perfect manager; his 154-170 record with the Blue Jays, complete with a pair of fourth-place finishes in the American League East, attests to that.

The Red Sox, though, believe that Farrell is the proper fit for this team. His familiarity with the organization — front office and roster — as well as his background in player development left him uniquely qualified, at least in the eyes of general manager Ben Cherington.

“His integrity, leadership skills and intelligence are second to none and make him the right person for this job,” Cherington said in introducing Farrell.

“His broad set of experiences also gives him an opportunity to develop relationships across a very broad spectrum — in the clubhouse, throughout the organization and in the community. It’s that broad set of experiences that make him such a unique person and the right person for this job.”

The subtext to many of Cherington’s comments Tuesday was how Farrell stands as the antithesis to Bobby Valentine, the man hired a year ago.

Farrell doesn’t need to establish relationships with skeptical members of the team’s core. He doesn’t need to adjust to the ways the game has changed over the last few seasons.

As Cherington talked about the significance of a strong working relationship between manager and GM, the overwhelming implication was that such a bond never existed between him and Valentine.

“It’s important that I have a relationship with a manager that’s strong to the point where you can disagree and be candid with one another and walk away knowing that that relationship is still intact,” Cherington said.

“I have a better chance of making good decisions if that relationship allows for that kind of candid discussion and disagreement at times. I feel confident about that with John based on my existing relationship with him.”

Cherington stressed that Farrell’s experience in Toronto made him a stronger candidate.

“Managing in the big leagues is not an easy gig, as everyone knows,” said Cherington. “It’s one thing to talk about it in theory, but to actually go and apply it and be on the ground and make those decisions in the dugout, one can only improve and be strengthened over time.”

By that same token, Farrell believes Boston can be a better fit for him than Toronto was. The familiarity will allow him to, in a phrase used on several occasions Tuesday, hit the ground running. His time with the Blue Jays also taught him about the give-and-take between a manager and the front office.

Farrell said he wishes he had been more assertive at times in conversations with Toronto general manager Alex Anthopoulos. He doesn’t expect that to be a problem the second time around, given his history with Cherington and the rest of Boston’s baseball operations staff.

“There are no communication barriers,” he said. “There’s no reluctance to give a gut feel or educated opinion on a given player, on a given combination of things or what we’re trying to achieve from a roster standpoint.”

Larry Lucchino also spoke to Farrell’s Fenway roots.

“We did like the familiarity, the continuity and the relationships in place,” the team president said. “You’re not just making a decision based on a few hours of interviewing. You’re basing it on several years of knowledge and interaction. That helped.”

That said, Farrell was adamant that he wouldn’t take those prior relationships for granted.

“It’ll be my approach to go back in to start to earn that trust and regain and reestablish all those relationships,” he said. “There’s the ability to have more candid conversations because we’ve had those candid conversations in the past.”

He added that he won’t spend too much time investigating and dissecting what has plagued the Red Sox from September 2011 through 2012.

“What’s happened has happened,” said Farrell. “It’s important that we focus on how we move forward. That’s what I want to hear and that’s what I want to talk to players about. We can’t go back in time.”

The hope is that with Farrell on board the organization as a whole can foster a more united environment. Again, what went wrong under Valentine was implied but not stated.

“I think it’s going to be critical that we all operate from the same page,” Farrell said. “That unity can be felt by the players. We’ve been able to establish that in this early going. The process they had to go through to make this transaction happen, all had to have input.”

The turnaround may not be swift. Cherington has talked often of “the next great Red Sox team,” but even Farrell was diplomatic when asked if he thought Boston could seriously contend next season.

“A couple of things will need to happen: certain players return to the form and the performance that they’ve established for themselves,” he said. “There’s a list of to-dos, no question. But with the roster that’s there now, there’s a core group there that you can build around. … I think this has got an opportunity to be a fairly quick turnaround and get to the point of contending next year.”

Cherington added: “As we work to build the next great Red Sox team, we are extremely fortunate that John will be with us to lead that team on the field. We’re excited to get going and work together.”